San Bernardino County and Riverside County, California Biographies
History of San Bernardino and Riverside Counties
By: John Brown, Jr., Editor for San Bernardino County
And James Boyd, Editor for Riverside County
With selected biography of actors and witnesses of the period
of growth and achievement.
Volume III, the Western Historical Association, 1922,
The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, ILL
This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm
BENJAMIN H. FERRIS
Benjamin H. Ferris has been a resident of Riverside twenty-seven years, is
still actively, engaged in the real estate business, and he represents a pioneer family
and some of the pioneer family and some of the pioneer enterprise of the great West.
Mr. Ferris was born at Galesburg, Knox County, Illinois, January 23, 1845. His father,
George Washington Gale Ferris, was born in Herkimer County, New York, in 1818.
He was a farmer in the East. In 1850 he made his first trip to California, coming across
the plains. In 1864 he again started from the East, accompanied by his family, with
mule teams drove across country until he reached the Carson Valley of Nevada, where
he settled and became an extensive rancher. He engaged in ranching there until 1880,
when he removed to Riverside and lived with his nephew, S. H. Ferris. Here he
employed his capital and the remaining years of his active life in orange culture. He
owned twenty acres at the head of Magnolia Avenue and also five acres in Arlington.
George W. G. Ferris was a fine type of pioneer character, strong, able in business,
faithful in his engagements and of incorruptible integrity. For a number of years in
Nevada he did the work of landscape gardening on the State Capitol grounds. He was
a member of the Presbyterian Church. His death occurred in April, 1896. His wife,
Martha (Hyde) Ferris, came from Plattsburg, New York, where they were married.
Their family consisted of five sons and five daughters. The youngest son was G. W. G.
Ferris Jr., an engineer who designed and built the famous Ferris Wheel at the Chicago
World's Fair. Benjamin H. Ferris was reared at Galesburg, Illinois, and attended the
public schools and Knox College in that city. While still a school boy he drilled with a
company in 1863 preparatory to service in the Civil War but was never called to active
duty. In 1864 he accompanied his parents across the plains, lived on the home ranch,
and since December 20, 1894, has been a resident of Riverside. He is thoroughly
versed in the practical science of orange culture, and for thirteen years he had charge
of the home grove. Since then he has given his principal time to the real estate business
in Riverside. Mr. Ferris is a republican but has never sought any public office. He has
been affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows since 1871. In Illinois in 1871
he married his first wife, and to that union were born six children. Those surviving are
Charles L., a salesman for the Lewis Lye Company of Indianapolis, and Clementia,
widow of John Shawler, of Youngstown, Illinois. In May, 1901, at Los Angeles, Mr. Ferris
married Maria Margaret Blaney, a native of England. They are active members of the
Magnolia Avenue Presbyterian Church.
Pages 1058 to 1059.
Transcribed and submitted by Sally Kaleta, January 2010.